Explorando la Literatura

Young Children and Serious Themes

When and how should young children be exposed to the real world, to discover “the toads in the garden” as poet Marianne Moore put it? The world is not always light and sunny, and a child’s imagination can lead him or her down dark paths. Of course, many children encounter unhappiness, sorrow, and loss directly

The story of the orphaned baby hippo adopted by the ancient tortoise told in Mama and Owen and Mzee is all at once disturbing, heartbreaking, and movingly optimistic. It is a refugee story of loss. Owen loses his mother, his home, his life as he knew it. It is a story of survival and more — of friendship, love, and hope. Mama tells the story for younger children. Through photographs, Owen & Mzee tells the story for school-age children (which preschool children will also enjoy).

Books can help children understand life’s challenges and tragic moments.A number of Books of Excellence have sensitively and delicately presented life’s troubles: The Teddy Bear tells the story of a homeless man who helps a young child learn to give. The Miraculoys Journey of Edward Tulane included heartlessness, abandonment, and death. The Librarian of Basra addresses war, and When Marian Sang and Rap a Tap Tap: Here’s Bojangles — Think of Thattouches on the racism that black artists have had to overcome.

Our reading with children should be intentional and thoughtful. There is a time for silliness and for solemnity, for whimsy and for helping children reflect on life. Mama is not a book for every child and not a book to pulled off the shelf and read casually. It is a book for sensitive discussion and conversation about life and a great companion to the photographs in Owen & Mzee.

> Back to Themes